Draw!!

What a bizarre night. Not because everyone arrived on time, or because we could see what we were doing in the murky dungeon of the ribs of beef, but because the end results in the games we played was eerie and spooky. By this I mean there where more draws than usual. Now I come to read back what I wrote it occurs to me that things were not strange…..but they certainly felt it at the time…at least to me.

Chris and Adam played Pompeii which was decided in Adams favour by one extra guy being in the volcano for Chris. A very close game and thanks to the boys for generally sitting out of the first round of games in case some others turned up.

Rich, Jimmy, Dylan and Andy (I think this is correct) played cosmic encounter. Which saw a shared victory for two of the players – Or Rich won by of course playing well but also of the virtue that his combos kicked arse – Hello rich nice to see you as always.

Matt B, Ollie, Rachel and Luke played container. This was a first play for Ollie and I and we expected to get a bit of a whipping by Matt or Rachel and so it began as after three rounds Matt had loads of containers on the centre map and was smacking us down like the bitches we were. As the game developed Ollie got into an increasingly good position and after a few rounds he had equalled Matts position and a few rounds later he was ahead. By the end of the Game Luke was delivering and buying so much stuff that there was little noticeable difference between these three players. Rachel had hardly any containers delivered and was playing a different strategy and we wouldn’t know her position till the end.

The game was very, VERY money tight and this squeezed the market. As we became more desperate for cash we lowered the prices of the goods we had to try and gain some cash flow, resulting in very small cash incomes meaning we ourselves had very little to spend on anyone else’s goods. This seriousness of this credit crunch was a result of several factors. The money available during the game came down to the following factors. 1st 3 out of the four players took money out of the game early on by purchasing infrastructure. 2nd money only came back into the game when players agreed to take an offer from a player for containers delivered to the central island. Because nobody had any money, nobody offered anything worth taking, so players refused the four euros and chose to pay this instead for the containers and larger reward of victory points. Thus taking more money out of the game. 3rd several loans where taken by Rachel and Luke, a quick injection of cash you might think but they spent the money again mostly on infrastructure, again returning the money to the bank but this time with the added interest payment squeezing more money out of the game every round.

Two factors slowly changed the credit crunch. The first was when Matt and later Ollie took loans and used this money to buy goods or participate in auctions. A much needed cash injection. Rachel and Luke also took additional loans having paid off previous ones and used their money to do the same and capitalism started to work. The other factor was Rachel reminding everyone of the rule (all be it a beginners rule which we chose to adopt given the scarcity of wealth) that at the start of your turn after you have paid loan interest you can sell one of your goods at the production dock for 2 euros. A useless sum meant as a ‘if all else fails’ measure, however all else was failing as all players were offering all there goods for this price anyway and were sitting around waiting for anyone to buy. Selling back to the bank meant that every go you had an income and every two or three goes you could produce more goods and after a few goes you could buy someone else’s goods. They would then have enough money to buy yours and hey presto more capitalist success.

This selling back to the bank fiasco served to prolong the game just long enough for Crocker to get back into it. More over it was he more than any player who capitalised on the lack of money and was winning auctions for cargo for approximately the same price that he was selling cargo for shipping, money was off set for one round while the tankers where at sea but the revenues from victory points more than made up for this.

When it came to the final tally. Rachel was fourth and Matt was third. Ollie and Luke both finished with exactly the same amount of cash. Unfortunately the count back was number of containers in the centre and we had packed this away as we calculated the scores. Initially Ollie was insistent that he must have delivered more than Luke and Luke was equally as insistent. Much debate and frowning took place and eventually cooler heads prevailed and a draw was agreed. Don’t worry all will be decided with the next game…..

If Ollie and Luke were at a disadvantage for the first game being newbie’s then it was Andy and Ollie who had the upper hand over Luke and Matt for the second game of the night which was Thebes. A game which has so much luck that it kind of is ok. Every player is subject to the same random card draws and same random tile draws. Yes one player can be overly lucky but taken over time this we hope normally cancels itself out.

Despite multiple different approaches at the end of the game Luke and Ollie where again tied. Unfortunately there was again no count back that could separate them. So despite over three hours and two games Luke and Ollie remained drawn. Freaky. Well maybe not so much.

I hope to see you all at the NBG soon.

I'm not going down there...

Amidst personal turmoil I found myself turning up at NoBoG, waiting to see what kind of games they would throw at me. It had been some weeks since I ventured downstairs at the Ribs, to prostrate myself at the feet of the God of Euros (Luke Crocker, for it is he) and get mercilessly destroyed at board games. I have been on a roll of late personally, barring a pair of defeats in Tide of Iron I have been handing out smackdowns in other such war games as Eisenbach Gap, and who could forget my epic 13 hour WWII: Barbarossa to Berlin struggle with Matt just two weeks ago - the game to end all games. The game which may have changed my approach to games forever. So here I was, ready to do battle in the field of the "impress the vicar" scoring tracks, with wooden cubes and convoluted mechanics. And here was Luke, being very generous and suggesting we play Fury of Dracula! Normally I would have jumped at such a chance, but Matt had brought Container, the final works of the much under-rated games designer, Franz Benno Delonge. I am a huge fan of two previous Delonge efforts, those being Manila and Big City, so I was eager to give the tediously themed Container a go, as I had no doubts that the late Delonge would have left us with one final enjoyable game. Luke was clearly shocked that I would opt to play a Euro where the object of the game was to buy cuboids and ship them to an anonymous island. But thems the breaks. Luke, Olly and Adam played Puerto Rico. Matt, myself, Rachel and Chris would push cuboids around on pretty boats for two hours.

Container is a cracking game, actually better than I was expecting. Manila and Big City are two excellent Euro-ish games, but they seem to be mercifully divulged from the slightly more serious Euro scene that has produced such behemoths as Caylus. A scene which fails to inspire much excitement in myself. Yet Container leans more towards the serious end of the spectrum. You have to have your wits about you - you are basically manufacturing and purchasing goods, then shipping them to the central island where you aim to sell them to other people, or keep them yourself if you judge them to be worth more than your offers, all in the name of making more money. The only scoring system in the game is money, which is fantastic. You always have a pretty fair idea of how you are doing, just not how your opponents are doing, as for each player each container is worth a slightly different, secret amount. There were several strategies employed. Chris went for a production strategy, generating large numbers of containers but never purchasing them when they were delivered to their destination. I indulged in some wild, reckless capitalism, buying in huge numbers everyone elses products and selling them at tiny profits. I adopted the "Tescos Strategy". I then using my tiny profits and generous bank loans to secure product upon delivery to the island. Matt produced nothing, and stocked nothing, but his boats for often full of goods that he flogged to us or coughed up the readies to keep. Using this devious plan he saved up, took out two loans at an opportune moment and bought huge amounts of delivered product just as the game seemed out of reach. Rachel was a very tidy player, very frugal and efficient, producing and stocking where necessary, and selling me tonnes of product at bargain basement prices. Rachel and I were mutually assisting each other with sales and purchases throughout the game without really intending or declaring it and this caused Chris a lot of problems, but it never really paid off in chasing down Matt. For Matt's bold strategy won out. He purchased a lot of delivered goods for knock down prices, I was in a position to deny him his final delivery purchase but had over-stretched myself. Just 2 or 3 more in cash would have perhaps tipped the scales in my favour but it wasn't to be. Matt romped home with 96, I had 76, Rachel had 70, and Chris had 59, tripped up by being the only real producer of goods, and then having to sell them at cheap prices. The game provides a curiously fascinating insight into capitalism and market forces, and I believe that the player created economy and balance should mean that Container is highly replayable and offer a variety of options each time out. Very impressive stuff!

Over on the other table, Luke had destroyed everyone at Puerto Rico, and then they played some game called "LE SCORPION!" or something, which seemed to involve Olly talking in a terrible French accent, with sounded more Rommel-esque to my untrained ears. This game was clearly nonsense, it had a striking resemblance to a game I played in my extreme youth, possibly snap. There was no winner, only a loser. Basically you played a card, declared what was on it (in Franglais) and the other player had to guess if you were lying or not. If they were wrong, they took your card. Your card seemed to have a picture of a spider, or a scorpion or some other creature on it. IF you got 4 cards of one type, you were out. The person who was out first was the loser, everyone else won. Genius! Luke lost, I am pretty sure on purpose as he appeared to detest this ridiculous "game". LE SCORPION!

We finished up with a vibrant round of Saboteur, almost ruined by the lad who came downstairs and said very loudly "I AM NOT GOING IN THERE, IT SOUNDS F**KING AWFUL" before retreating to the safety of the upstairs bar. Saboteur was a new one on me, it is quite fun, very chaotic but you don't get much chance to influence the game. A fine end of night game nonetheless. I was the saboteur twice, and I was quite happy to let everyone know about it. Unfortunately I was unable to make serious inroads into sabotaging everyone, which was quite disappointing. We had three rounds and Adam ran out a worthy winner, though I have no idea how the scoring system worked at all. Saboteur is fun enough that the issue of winner and loser is quite irrelevant to be honest.

And that was that. Things were packed away, and we all faded away into the foggy night, a successful evening of fine gaming. GAME ON.

Primordial Soup for the Soul

A quick post me thinks to bring us all up to date. After the tomes that I have been churning out everyone will no doubt be relieved to see that this post will be short, well that is the intention.

A collection of 7 debated which games to bring to the table this week and after much polite Britishness we settled for ‘Primordial Soup’ played by Jimmy, Matt, Rachel and Adam. And Cuba played by Ollie, Luke and Tom.

Adam won the ‘P-soup’ with an aggressive eating strategy that allowd him to not be hit by the general peeks and dips that other players suffered through. Jimmy played a long game and planned his points well being beaten at the end by the smallest of margins. Matt languished in third never reproducing enough to real compete with Adams eating strategy. Rachel was last due to her inability to avoid Adams hungry grasp. Jimmy had top protection and was unaffected by Adam, Matt had a 50/50 chance of survival so all things considered Rachel was the object of Adams machinations and mastications.

After carefully setting up Cuba and choosing it ‘to see how this plays with 3’, we were joined be Jack ‘Sgt. Slamtastic’ Shannon and Levan (the spelling of all names is purely guesswork). Ollie was not bothered by the mayo chip infested students and allowed them to freely touch his game and we began a rules session led by Luke and supported by Ollie. Ollie was the more accomplished player and through the game cultivated a much better maximisation of opportunity and resources. Tom sitting to Ollies right had opportunities to ship rum before him unless Ollie was first player (which I believe happened possibly twice). However despite several rum ships appearing near the beginning most of the powerful rum ships did not materialise and cigars and products where the resources of choice in the middle rounds. Levan was next in the pecking order comfortably moving away from Jack by reason of 2 points per building at the end of the game. Levan used the 1 and 2 VP buildings well and had he more Cuba experience would surely have accumulated more points that he missed with minor mistakes. Luke sporny **** that he is purchased the building that created 2 blue cubes a turn only for the VP per blue cube law to be proposed in round two. Where upon he bought political influence +2 votes and passed the law. He then proceeded to acquire the veto sanction and allowed the powerful VP per blue law to remain in effect for the entirety of the game. Where others gained resources and then converted and then shipped taking for most 2 turns Luke just sat back and got small reward followed by small reward. By the end of the game he had acquired 9 blue cubes and was getting substantial VPs through doing nothing. In the end the distance between 1st and 3rd was twenty odd points. Had the laws been completely different other strategies would no doubt have been adopted but clearly the points margin was a reflection of how early that card arrived and was not removed. Its just a shame Luke couldn’t have got the golf course as well as then the real points would have a racked up.

The Cuba table finished within 5 minutes of the ‘P-soup’ table which meant that we were able to chat and pack away as a group which made a nice change.

Friends, Romans and Salty Sea Dogs

Report for 29th January 2008.

Revelling in his success from last week by bringing along a game and not only getting it played, but also winning, Tom thought he’d try and his push his luck by doing the same again this week. The first part of his plan worked nicely. By pulling out the eagerly anticipated Tribune: Primus Inter Pares (Tribune: First Among Equals), by game designer Karl-Heinz Schmiel, he quickly gathered the first four gamers through the door (Jimmy, Hayden, Ollie and myself) and set the Roman themed game going.

The publisher describes the game thusly:

Bow before the Tribune, Romans! Poor or rich, strong or weak, Patrician or Plebeian, hear the word of the Tribune! He is one of you, but he is the Tribune, he is the primus inter pares – the first among equals!

Welcome to the most impressive metropolis of the ancient world – Rome. A city full of life, with inhabitants of many differences. But beneaththose differences they had one thing in common – they were Romans.

Play as one of the great patrician families which held great power and influence. Gain control over the seven factions of the city which hold control over many aspects of Roman culture.

In Tribune, you try to become the most powerful family in Rome. Will the Legions stay faithful? Will you be honored with the favor of the Gods? Will you even get the title of Tribune?

GET READY TO RE-WRITE HISTORY!

All pointed to a rich game full of politics and intrigue. The board was beautiful with big Roman buildings dominating the bustling streets. And there is a big Roman guy on the box. So when Tribune turned out to be a set collecting card game with a few bells and whistles, I must admit I was a little disappointed. Despite my disappointment, the game rattles along at a good pace with players taking control of the seven factions by playing larger sets of cards than the previous faction owner. Once a player has control of a faction he uses its powers to help him complete three of the six victory conditions - once achieved the game ends and all players that have completed three conditions (one of which must be a Tribune tile) are considered for victory by adding up points they’ve scored.

It was quite hard to judge how well players were progressing throughout the game, with most people concerned about their own objectives rather than each others. Therefore the game slammed to halt with much surprise when I enquired if the game ended as soon as I had completed three conditions. I had and was declared the winner. No one else was close to completing three, but Ollie had the most points and was declared second place. Whether I deserved the victory was a bigger issue than the lack of politics and intrigue. The cards do not seem very well balanced and by winning one card in particular, I gained a ‘Gift from God’ – one of the harder to obtain victory conditions – which should normally take two turns of good planning and play to obtain. To make matters worse this card could have appeared in anyone’s hand through a random draw or by simply being the player to go first. And the final insult was that I didn't realise that the card gave me this game winning 'Gift from God' untill Ollie pointed it out to me. That'll teach him to look at my cards! Overall, we all seemed to enjoy the experience, but I’m not sure any of us came away with the feeling of re-writing history.

Whilst we spent time hanging around the latrines of Rome. The other attendees got down to the serious business of winning Land Unter, Fearsome Floors and even a six player game of the Settlers of Catan (as opposed to the usual four player version), something I’ve never tried despite playing around a hundred games of Settlers.

Undeterred by his staggering failure with Tribune, Tom pushed on and whilst everyone was at the bar he snuck his second German edition game, Rette Sich Wer Kann (Each Man for Himself - or Lifeboats), on to the table. This is a negotiation game with six lifeboats trying to row to the safety of a group of nearby islands. The rules are simple. Basically each player has six sailors distributed between the vessels. Each turn only one boat will make progress towards the islands – voted for by the players. One boat will spring a leak reducing the boat’s capacity – voted for by the players. If the boat is at maximum occupancy when the leak occurs, then players (on the boat) vote to decide who to throw overboard (that sailor is removed from the game). If a boat ever has more leaks than occupants then the boats sinks and all sailors on it are food for the sharks. Players are also required to move one of their sailors to another lifeboat each turn. The game continues in this fashion until all the boats have either reached an island or have sunk.

Jimmy and I both got a number of sailors to the shore fairly quickly. Tom also looked to be progressing well but that worked against him as time and again his crew got thrown overboard. Hayden spread his crew across a number of boats which made him less of a target but meant he was either at the mercy of the majority on a lifeboat or had the deciding vote. Ollie on the other hand didn’t seem to grasp the game at all and spent most of the game with his crew on the precariously leaky orange boat. However, it became clear that anyone who got crew to the islands early on was not going to get many more to safety as the perceived leaders had their boats spring leaks and then their sailors tossed overboard.

Ollie sprang into action in the final couple of turns moving his mostly untargeted crew from the dangerous orange boat to the high scoring prestige boats and finally got four sailors to safety and stole the win, which everyone thought had gone to me. Bah! Lifeboats proved to be a raucous game with jeers and jibes flying across the table as sailors were thrown overboard and boats were sunk. This was especially surprising coming from a game with perfect information.

Anyway, congratulations to Tom on getting two of your games to the table in one week. I’m sorry you didn’t get to complete the double and win either. Better luck next time you get a game to the table – check back here in about August folks!

If you've read this and wondered why the phrase "Crocker won the game as usual" hasn't been used. He wasn't there. He was ill at home. So here's a little note just for Luke: When we packed the games away, we didn’t use the baggies. We just shoved all the bits in the box. And even when we did have bags, Tom told us to mix up all the colours. I would have taken a photo for you, but didn’t have my camera.

The week of 15!

It seems bizarre that three weeks ago Ollie and I sat in the pub lamenting the death of NBG “just two this week” was the murmur from bar staff or so we suspected. But last Tuesday a staggering 15 people attended…yes that’s right 15 and even then Matt and I were able to name 10 or so, could be regulars who had not come. Shanon and Luke had returned to the UEA and had brought with them somebody new (who then proceeded to win all their games) and I apologise for not properly saying hello or noting your name or for that matter the games you played or who else was at your table, though I think it was Chris and Andy. I remember Adam set up Alhambra wrong and that he avoided Rachel’s wrath by insisting that Shanon washed his hands before playing just about everything. By the end of the night Shanon had contracted OCD but at least non of Rachels games got dirty.

Jimmy, Matt, Harry, Steve and Tom played ‘In the year of the dragon’ which Matt dominated only to be piped at the post by Tom. After which Harry and Steve departed leaving the other three to play ‘Wabash Cannonball’ which was won by Tom, two in a row. He obviously had been training over the Christmas break and swotting up on how to kick ass.

Ollie, Rachel, ???? (I’m sorry your name escapes me, I will update later apols) and I played ‘Pillars of the Earth’. I did the rules session supervised by Ollie, the resident pillars expert. Followed by a game of Baumiesters of Arcadia, Rachel then departed and the three of us played ‘To court the king’.

In Pillars of the Earth you are helping the construction of cathedral and score victory points by skilfully donating workers to endeavours to ultimately earn you victory points. The game has a Caylus feel to it, but Pillars is far more accessible and ultimately its own game.

The game is played over six rounds which for us flew by. The fact there are only six rounds is important when you calculate the value of some of the objects (craftsman and other cards) later on offer. The best objects that can or will come out later are not necessarily as good as they seem given the length of life they have in them and conversely some of the lesser objects early may be more valuable. The object of the game is to accumulate resources and convert these into victory points whilst balancing this objective with the gold at your disposal.

There are 4 resources in the game: Wood, Stone, Sand and Iron. Each player receives 3 craftsman cards, each has a specific resource that they convert into VPs at a rate which is not favourable. During the game there are opportunities to gain more craftsman cards which have enhanced or different powers / conversion rates. However you are only allowed to hold a max of 5 craftsman cards (there is an advantage card, which Rachel got in our game, that lets you hold 6 – kind of like the warehouse in St Petersburg – more on that later). When you acquire a sixth card you must choose which you wish to discard. Be warned if you discard one of your original workers (marked with an exclamation point!) you are punished immediately with a permanent loss of ability linked to that card, these are:
Can no longer buy wood at the market,
Can no longer sell stone at the market,
Can no longer receive VPs from the mason.
This may have no impact on how you are playing but you must take care and consider this carefully, as we all did.

There is a second type of card possibly depicting a person, these are known as advantage cards. At the start of a round, 2 are randomly drawn from the deck and placed on the board to be won later in that round. We read the cards out loud and explained what each card did. In later games the name of the card will no doubt say it all. These cards offer a variety of benefits, instant rewards or additional benefits when you choose a particular action or resource- they are fairly self explanatory. In our game I acquired 6 or 7 of these and Ollie got one or none, at the end of the game there was 2 or 3 points separating us. They are obviously helpful and powerful but other paths to victory are available.

Each player receives 12 workers who they will farm out to get the main three resources. You receive one large worker (worth 5) and seven smaller ones. At the beginning of the round 7 out of a possible 9 resource area cards are laid out on the table. In the deck there is a small (2 cubes) medium (3 cubes) and large (4 cubes) work card for each of the three areas, forest (wood resources), Quarry (stone resource) and ????? (sand resource). In addition to this there are some extra craftsman cards to supplement the three you start with. There are six mini decks of four cards so experienced players will know at what stage of the game what new craftsman will be coming out. It is advisable that a quick summary of these cards are shown to new players before the game begins. Each of the mini decks are labelled 1-6 and two cards from deck 1 are placed face up on the board for use later and the other two craftsman from deck 1 are placed next to the resource area cards. Starting with the start player (which generally rotates clockwise at the end of one of the six rounds) each player takes it in turn to choose one of the nine cards now on display or soft passes. If they choose one of the two craftsman cards they pay the gold cost indicated at the top of the card and move there gold marker down accordingly on the gold track. They then add that card to there personal display (remember max 5) and where possible may use it this turn. Alternatively players may take one of the seven resource area cards, if they do this they place the number of workers indicated at the top of this card into that work area on the board (these will be returned later) in doing so players have fewer workers to use in subsequent goes this round. If you wish to wait and see you may pass and join in again later or if there are no moves available to you and you still have workers left over, or if you just want to, you can place your remaining workers in the village on the board – these will later earn you one gold per worker.

In the next stage all players have 3 master builders which are placed in a bag. There is a dial at the foot of the board which is set to seven and counts down to zero. A random master builder is drawn from the bag and the player whose builder it is must decide to pay the cost in gold indicated by the dial or to pass. If they pass their master builder is put on the dial at the point they passed and the dial is moved down one notch. Later the player will get to place their master builder for a cost of zero but only when all others have been drawn from the bag thus losing any advantage of placement order. If the player chooses to accept the price indicated on the dial then they pay the gold by moving down the track and get to choose any available spot on the board. The dial is then still moved down one notch and a new master builder is drawn. This continues till all master builders are drawn, once the dial gets to zero all subsequent placements cost nothing. When the bag is empty all master builder tokens on the dial representing the passes are placed on the board in the order they were drawn. In our game if drawn at 7 or 6 players nearly always passed except in the hotly contested last few rounds or if a player knew they needed a particular thing. If a player had enough money they considered the 5’s but pretty much everyone always took a 4 or any other lower draw.

When the master builders have all been placed, the final stage of a round starts and the board positions are calculated. There are 14 area events on the board, each one is resolved in order and then play continues to the next event. When all 14 are finished a new round begins. At the end of the sixth round a winner is declared.
The 14 events are as follows:
1) Event card – 6 out of 12 event cards are seeded to the board, half of the available cards are positive half are negative. There is no knowing what the distribution is in the game. The top card on the deck is drawn and read aloud, instructions followed.
2) If a master builder is in the arch-chancellor position they may choose to ignore the event card – otherwise they may take a good of there choice immediately from the market for no cost.
3) The village, all workers that were placed here gain there owner 1 gold. Workers are returned.
4) Take the advantage card for free. The strength of these is dependant on your strategy and the point in the game when the card comes out. Some are always good, or some you always think are naff, others at the table however could disagree. I got a card that allowed me to look at the event cards, in one game this was useless in another superb.
5) Straight victory points. 2 or 1. There is an advantage card which awards an additional 1 point every time you take this action.
6) Woods – you gain cubes equal to the number written at the bottom of your resource area cards.
7) Quarry – you gain cubes equal to the number written at the bottom of your resource area cards.
8) ??????? - you gain cubes equal to the number written at the bottom of your resource area cards.
9) Tax + Tax exemption – Any player who has a master builder in this section is tax exempt. The first player to place here has an additional reward of one metal cube. With the exception of two advantage cards. This is the only way to gain the fourth valuable resource of Iron. A six sided dice containing numbers 2 -5 is rolled and each player not represented here is subject to pay the amount rolled in tax.
10) Gain a craftsman card for free.
11) Gain two additional workers (to add to your 12 for placement in resource areas) for one go
12) Trade with the market: You may buy goods providing they are available (present on the board) once gone these resources are not replaced till the end of the round, you may not buy Iron. OR you can sell any of the four goods for the price listed. After your go the next person on a market space may use the market once. After all players have used the market, each player gets a second opportunity and then a third, till all players have used the market as often as they can or wish to.
13) Be first player for the following round.
14) Collect VPs based on using cubes and craftsman cards in any legal combinations that you wish.

After this the game board gets reseeded in preparation for the next round. Resource cards are collected from players shuffled and 7 drawn then placed with 2 craftsman at the side of the board, 2 craftsman and 2 advantage cards are placed in the correct positions on the board, the market gets filled, an iron cube goes to the joust, first player changes clockwise (if nobody chose it with there master craftsman), all master craftsman should be in the draw bag, bonus grey workers are returned to the pool and used cards are discarded. At the end of the sixth round a winner is declared.

After careful consideration I have decided not to write up the games of Baumiesters of Arcadia or ‘To court the king’ as I will probably not get that post finished till August. All games where won by Luke, Pillars was VERY close between Ollie and Luke, Arcadia was fairly one sided but to court the king was also close with Ollie getting 8 5’s only just beaten by Luke’s 6’s.

See you all soon.